A slum or a squatter’s settlement isn’t where one expects to find an architect.

Yet, it’s in those communities on three different continents that Vikram Bhatt has spent most of his distinguished career.

What he’s learned from the people who live in some of the worst places in the world has informed his 40 years of teaching at McGill University and led to his designs for minimum-cost housing that have been used in China, India and Mexico.